If Oman is on your bucket list (which I would highly recommend), make sure you go to the Nizwa Friday souk. It is the best market I‘ve been too and a highlight of my travels in Oman.

Animals arriving at the souk

A souk is basically a public market only it’s unlike any other shopping experience I have ever seen. The Niswa souk offers buyers every imaginable kind of animal .Then there are the vegetable and fruit merchants, the dried and fresh fish merchants, and the spice merchants, the antiques, the old guns and knives, and almost anything you can think of.

Having been to several souks before it was the animal market I found really intriguing. The goats and cattle, led by a rope around their necks, seemed unfazed by the chaos and noise. The locals bought and sold, and enjoyed the social occasion -the men looking state-like, in their crisp dishdashas (white robes) and the women in their black berkas.

Chaos eventually turned to order as the sellers formed a circle, with the prospective buyers forming an outer circle. The animals were paraded one by one, until sold. First the goats, then the cattle and some days camels, although we were not fortunate enough to see one.

It was an incredible experience, literally rubbing shoulder with the locals. I was lucky enough to give this small kid a cuddle before it was bundled onto a truck and taken to its new home.